 You can be anything you want when you grow up. If you work hard, you can accomplish anything. People will like you if you just be yourself. We tell our kids these things and hope that one day they'll be true. But not everyone gets the opportunities and can avoid the barriers to be anything or anyone they want. I grew up on Long Island, below the poverty line and often without hope. And when you grow up learning that the odds are stacked against you, you realize the easy choice is to accept your situation. The hard choice is to fight. And I did. As an activist and organizer, I still do. Not just for me, but for others like me. For the people that have no voice because they've been silenced. Or just never knew they could speak up and be heard. We've been told by those in charge to wait our turn or stay in our lane. Well, right now is our turn. And fighting for solutions that affect our future is absolutely in our lane. I believe everyone deserves a seat at the table. But the table itself is broken. Rotted by corporate greed, the super rich and generational politicians more concerned about their next election than our next school getting shot up. Right now, just having a seat at a broken table isn't enough. We need to build a brand new table. A table with space carved out for everyone's voice. Where boldness, courage and leadership are championed. A table with fewer politicians who are out of touch with everyday people. And more everyday people changing and shaping our futures. Relentlessing their pursuits and driven by the passion to make a difference. Our district deserves common sense solutions fought with the urgency they deserve. Because when we all use our voices together, we can make a difference. Our district deserves better. The status quo isn't working. The rhetoric isn't working. The thoughts and prayers definitely aren't working. If we really want change, if we really want progress, we need to fight for it. Together. I'm Melanie Derigo and I'm running for Congress in New York's third district. We're building a movement. Let's build it together. Hello, everyone. I am here with Melanie Derigo running in New York's third congressional district. And she is here to talk about her progressive campaign. Melanie, thank you so much for coming on the program. Thank you so much for having me, Mike. I am excited to talk to you. You're running a fantastic campaign. And your slogan is elect better Democrats. I absolutely love that. What does that mean? Well, I guess it depends on who you ask. To me, it means that we really have to look within our own party, because what we have discovered is that while we have certain representatives that bear the Democrat moniker, when we look at their votes and their actions, they're not really living up to what it means to be a true, or what I think it means to embody the Democratic ideals, and in many cases are breaking with the party and siding with the Republican party right now and their votes in action. So we're calling on people to pay attention. It's really a call to action, right? To pay attention, understand who your representatives are, and if they're not representing you, well, vote them out and represent someone who does. Hence, elect better Democrats. I love that. And this really isn't about like a new type of Democrat, not to be confused with the new Democrats, which are centrist. But I mean, you know, there's often this talk of the Democrats are shifting so far to the left, and they're just crazy. They're socialist. But really, what this is about, if you talk to most Democrats, is just getting back to their roots, like the FDR roots of economic populism and making sure that we're not leaving anybody behind. So you're running against, his name is Thomas Suozzi, I'm probably butchering his name. That's okay, we can butch it. No one needs to know his name anyway, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was just elected in 2016. Now, I'm curious, why do you think he needs to be challenged? Because if he was just elected and you're already primarying him, something is wrong there. He's clearly not it. So why do you think he's insufficient? Yeah, and just for a little bit of background, he served as mayor in a town within the district for many, many, many years. And then after that, he was our NASA County, which is a county on Long Island, the NASA County executive for close to 10 years. And then he lost that election twice. He lost and then he tried to run again and lost again. And then a few years later, he ran for Congress. So he's been around. He's been a career politician in my home in Long Island for over 25 years. And when he got to Congress, I think that there is a little bit of space. Like at least not everyone is that way, but I give everyone the benefit of the doubt when they start out. You got to give them a little bit of space to get their footing. That's fine. But what I have seen very consistently over the last four years is that my representative does not, as he said earlier, he doesn't represent me. And when you have a representative that is almost exclusively funded by corporate donations, when you start to see when they break and have this very strange vote that is really in direct opposition to what I believe is Democrats we stand for. And then lo and behold, there's one of his donors that benefits from it. I think that's a major problem. And that's a problem on both sides of the aisles. You know, it's not just a Democratic problem. It's definitely a Republican problem as well. And I think we need to expect more from our representatives because something has changed under a Trump administration and we're paying more attention. I think the people want representatives to represent them beyond corporate money. And one of our sort of our first encounters or our first sparring matches with my current representative is his position on immigration. You know, he has this incredible story of his parents immigrating here. You would think someone with that kind of background would really step up and fight for immigrants, not him, unfortunately. He was one of the few Democrats to break with the party and support ICE. He went down to the border and came back and said Customs and Border Patrol is doing a great job. We've got to support these guys. We've got to support ICE. We've got to fund them. I went down to the border this past summer. I volunteered down there with a few friends. And I'll tell you, I had a very different reaction. You know, I had I was fortunate enough to be able to go to a shelter in Juarez and meet a lot of people who had either presented at the border and had been processed and detained and now we're waiting for their asylum case. Some had told me about their journeys where they were waiting to present at the border, which with them they would get processed and detained and then get sent back. And they just had these incredible stories, you know, and I got to hold these little kids in my arms and I was heartbroken, you know, and the only thing I could do was tell them that they're not alone, that there are people fighting for them, that we love you, you know, we're all here. We're all in this together. And it was very moving and it was very heavy for me. And when I came back to New York, it kind of supercharged me and I wanted to fight for immigrant rights even harder. So it was really shocking to me how someone could go down and he had much more access than I did to the actual detention centers and how you could come back and support the horrors that are happening down there. It's very surprising. So, you know, shortly after that, you know, so I didn't mention my representative is the vice chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, which I'm sure your audience knows but I'll just give a brief overview, you know, theoretically there are bipartisan caucus, you know, designed to reach across the aisle. And I think most of us ideologically would say, hey, that's a great theory, but I think under a Trump administration, if that's what you're a part of, one really has to question your motives and your intent. So this particular caucus was instrumental in that, what I call a sham of the humanitarian aid bill that was passed just before 4th of July this year. And I'll just, again, give a quick overview of that. There was an initial House bill that had many protections for migrants put in it. Of course, when it got to the Senate, Mitch McConnell did his thing and he, you know, crossed out all of the protections and he increased funding for ICE. It was a $4.5 billion bill. So taxpayers are paying this. And over half of the bill went to expanding shelters, not to humanitarian aid like representatives would have us believe. And his caucus was instrumental in telling Pelosi not to negotiate for these protections to be put back in after McConnell stripped them out. They told her, we won't vote for your bill. Vote for, we're only going to vote for McConnell's bill. And why would anyone do that? I mean, it was, and I spent a long time climbing, you know, really reading, clawing through the bills and understanding what was in them. And it's, to me, I just can't understand. It turns out later on when I questioned him on it, he later admitted that he didn't even read the bill. Oh, wow. Right. So, you know, like, I, look, I don't, like you're representative to have, you know, very intense schedules. I get it. Maybe if there's a bill for a ceremonial, you know, you know, ceremonial bill, you want to name a school, a certain name, and you have all the details and you want to vote for it. You don't want to read the whole bill because you don't have time. Okay. A $4.5 billion bill, you don't even read it. The bar is that low. And then, you know, of course, I'm obviously a woman. I have three children. And, you know, my representative did not speak out against Brett Kavanaugh. He has not spoken out about the abortion bans popping all over, popping up all over the country. He has long supported the Hyde Amendment, which is an amendment that adversely affects, you know, women of color, women of low income, young women, and makes it nearly impossible for them to access abortion. So, you know, we can go on and on and on. But, you know, even the things that he votes relatively fine with, it's just like empty lip service. Like, we, we need to represent it. We live in a coastal community. Like, we need a representative who's really fighting for a Green New Deal and not just kind of gets pushed in a corner and feels like he has to say he supports it. Build those alliances. Build those coalitions. Like, no one's got time for that. You know, no one has time to wait around for these representatives to take up space only to represent themselves. Yeah. And as you describe this, like, the only thing that comes to mind is this sounds like a Republican. Like, why not just switch parties at that point? Like, if you're siding with the Trump administration on something like immigration. I mean, for me, like, I just talked about a report on my show from AP that talked about how there were, what was it, almost 70,000 migrant children detained in 2019 alone by Trump's administration. Like, this shouldn't just be left to right. This should be a human thing that we all kind of read. And we have this visceral reaction to it because this is human suffering that we're causing. So for a Democrat of all people who should be, you know, the loudest in speaking out, it just, it doesn't make any sense. Yeah. You have an immigrant story, you know, in part of your history, your personal history. Right. I mean, like, I think, you know, he's very clearly shown us that he's all about political expediency and not about political leadership. He was one of the last Democrats to the table to support impeachment. We were pushing him really hard on that. And, you know, you talk about, like, the Republican side of it. You know, as I mentioned, he's the vice chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus. And most of us worked really, really hard in 2018 to elect as many Democrats as we could. And, you know, winning back the House was a huge, huge achievement for us and, you know, for all of us. And one of the very first things he did when he was elected, he held up Speaker Pelosi's speakership by, you remember there was that group holding the coup and what they ended up doing was changing. And this is like super wonky, but I have a feeling your audience kind of like digs the wonkiness like me. So I'm going to get to it in a minute. You know, they basically negotiated this rules change that weakened Democratic power by giving the minority party more of an influence. So if they had a certain amount of votes, they could bring a bill to the floor, which look, maybe we can talk about under a different administration, under a different president, maybe that would have been a decent procedural rule to change. But after we worked so, so hard, it just felt like a slap in the face. You negotiate a rules change to weaken the Democratic party when this is the only check we have on an absolutely lawless president. And he touts that as a win. So when you say that, you know, he kind of should be on the other side, like, I mean, that's something on the other side would definitely tout as a win. It's not something that a Democrat under the Trump administration should be touting as a win. No, not at all. And he's happy to give that over. So there are a lot of good reasons to challenge him. But mostly I really just believe that my district deserves a leader. We deserve a fighter and that's not him. You know, so I'm stepping up and I am building coalitions and we're building momentum and we are pumped and I'm really excited about the campaign that we're running. Yeah, I love your campaign. And the way that you describe the situation is we don't just need more voices at the table. We need a new table. Like the system is rotten to the core. So explain kind of your broad philosophy politically and talk a little bit about yourself because this isn't just about that Republican like Democrat who's empowered. This is about someone who would bring true change to that district that I think people in New York's third would actually love and admire. Yeah, yeah. So I'm glad that you talked about the table reference. I think you have like, you know, Shirley Chisholm said if there's if there's not a seat at the table bring a folding chair. And I think she was so inspirational for so many reasons. And I think a lot of women in particular started to do that. But when you get to the table, you realize that that table wasn't built for you, right? And that that's it's sort of this, this, this microcosm of our government, right? These spaces weren't built for us. It's why so many, so many mothers don't run for Congress because they don't know how to navigate that with raising children, right? But we look and almost all of our Congress is, well, not anymore after 2016, but I think before 2016, everyone in Congress was a millionaire. Yeah, like half, I believe. Yeah. I think it was more. Oh, really? I'll have to check. I'm going to check and I'm going to send you the staff. Okay. It's astounding. It is astounding. These spaces weren't built for us. So we're building a brand new table. And what that means is that we are building this movement. It's not just me, which is even more exciting, right? There are candidates all over the country that are stepping up with similar philosophies. And we've built very strong alliances here with a lot of the progressive candidates, which is really exciting because we kind of help each other out and boost each other as much as we can. But it's really about restoring power back to the people. So we have a broken healthcare system. We all know that. Who is this healthcare system working for? This funny, I chuckle, this idea that people like their health insurance, nobody likes that. So I have a time when people don't even know who their carrier is. It's not the health insurance. You may like your doctor. You may have a relationship with your doctor, but you don't like the health insurance industry or the health insurance carrier. So I am a huge supporter of Medicare for All. I spent my career developing health improvement programs for patients, for clients, for families, for kids, and ultimately for organizations. And I saw that whole world, and I know what goes into it. And the truth of the matter is that healthcare costs are unsustainable. They're unsustainable for consumers. They're unsustainable for employers. And it's just insane that we allow, we live in a world where we think it's okay for senior citizens to ration their insulin, where 20-year-olds are starting to go fund me because they can't afford their medication or their medical procedures. That's insane. So broken system, new table. We need to build something new. And right now I think that that is, I think it's Medicare for All. That to me makes sense. A green new deal. It's a completely different new system. It's a new way of thinking. Yes, we are, through it, we are essentially getting rid of our fossil fuels. We're switching to 100% renewable energy. And that is very exciting. We need to do those things to save our planet, but to focus on frontline communities. Like that isn't, we don't do that in America. We, for some reason, there are, and this has been done since the dawn of time, there's something within certain people, and I'm not going to specify which party does this more frequently. Your audience can probably guess. There's something within Americans, we're not even Americans, we're within people that they want to kick people when they're down. They want to invest and kicking people more so they can stay down. And I just think that is so backwards, and we need to invest in lifting people up. And that's what this campaign is about. And so whether that is figuring out ways to fund public education in ways that make sense, funding public colleges so people can get an education which will ultimately lead to a thriving, more innovative country for us. Restoring rights, which shouldn't be something it shouldn't be new, it shouldn't be innovative, but unfortunately under a Trump presidency where he's rolled back and discriminated against so many marginalized communities, it's about creating a world of equity and equality. And it's really, it's returning government to the people. Yeah, absolutely, which is crucial. And you talk a lot about big money in politics, the corporatization of not just American politics, but the Democratic Party. So I'm curious because you are all about basically reforming the Democratic Party. What would that look like practically speaking? So let's say you get elected to Congress and Medicare for all comes up. And there's going to be, we'll say like a really large portion of the party that is going to vote against it. How do you, as someone who would be kind of a target from leadership, because I can't really foresee a situation where we get a progressive as a leader anytime soon. But like what do you do because there's going to be pushback against you and members of the squad and progressives. They're going to try to marginalize you. How do you fight against that within the party? Yeah, I think it is about, well, firstly, I will say I'm hopeful that 2020 will yield many progressive seats. Yes. And I think, you know, the more we have people who want to lead because it's an intrinsic motivator they want to leave for the people stepping up and running for office and the more we get in office the stronger we become as a coalition, right? Because there are power in numbers for sure. But I think that we have to get a little vocal and we have to get a little loud. You know, ideally running a campaign is a lot of work. Running for Congress is a lot of work. I think it's meaningful and it's important work, but it is, it's nonstop. It's seven days a week. You're pulling 10-hour days, most days. And so it's a lot. And then if you do end up getting elected, I think you have to look at it like, okay, your clock starts there. Of course it would be great if you got re-elected and you can continue to do the work that you're doing. But I think what happens is too many people get to Congress and they say, oh, how do I stay here? And I think it's the wrong approach. I think we need to win seats and then say, what can I change here? And you have that, you have your time, right? You have two years to make as much change as you can. It's building coalitions. It's trying to get through to the other side. But I do think money and politics is a huge part of it because that's, and again, it's on both sides. So a lot of the Democratic Party takes a lot of money and they don't want to vote against it. They're big donors from the insurance industry and medical suppliers, pharmaceuticals. So it's trying to build those bridges. And I'll see when I get there what the response is. But if the response is not positive, then I think we have, it's our responsibility as representatives to continue to build within our community, right? Because once you get elected, your work doesn't stop there. It's not just about fighting in Congress. It's not just about introducing legislations. But it is about doing the work at home and building support and having, like creating a national conversation around it, right? Because if the people rise up, well, those politicians will have no choice but to side with their people or they'll get voted out. And I think that's the fear we need to put in these politicians, not that, oh, your donor might not donate to you, but that your constituents will not be there to back you because you won't represent them. Yeah. And I think that what makes candidates like you and AOC and Ilhan Omar so different is that you guys aren't reliant on that corporate money that is raised by leadership. So Nancy Pelosi can whip up votes for something because if they don't comply, she can shut off the funding mechanism, which they view as the lifeblood, you know, to get elected and reelected. So you guys don't have to worry about that because this is a grassroots campaign. You don't take money from large multinational corporations. This is a people-powered movement. So that in and of itself, like even if we can't get like 50 plus 1% of progressives like you in Congress, just having a really large block that's vocal, I truly believe that that can actually make a difference. So let's say, hypothetically speaking, the 2020 election is pretty successful and we brought in the squad and we have like 35 members of the squad now. Very bold, vocal, progressive people in Congress. What do you think can actually be achieved in the event we get a Democratic White House? Just with that squad, do you think that is actually enough to get policies like Medicare for all through if it's like 35 members? Is that big enough? Listen, I think you look at the impact that Representative, I have to give her the respect Representative Ocasio-Cartes has, right? Yes, yes. Look at what just that one person has been able to do. Look at how she's changed the dialogue. I mean, it is, it's incredible. I think, and it really depends on who the president becomes, right? I think if we have Bernie Sanders presidency, well, then yeah, we're going to get that passed. But if we, if for some reason the world goes crazy and we have more of a, you know, moderate Democrat in the White House, I think then it's incumbent on the progressives to really push for it and represent it. And one thing, I'm sorry, I meant to mention when you asked me about, you know, building that leadership and we talked about the corporate money. I'm not sure if you're aware, but I recently issued my first policy, which was around getting corporate money out of politics. We know that Citizens United is, it has been so detrimental, you know, for our country. And I think, and it's going to be really, really hard to overturn that. And there, you know, we can, there's all different kinds of theories and ways to do it. But I think it's about thinking outside the box and really holding our politicians accountable for what they are doing, because I think most people are not aware of just how much cash, how much money corporations and dark money are really filtering through politics. So I launched the paid by act and I'm happy to say that several of my, my progressive, you know, hopefully future colleagues in New York have, you know, signed on to the policy and now many around the country have. And essentially the paid by act is politician accountability, oh, give me one second. Politician accountability information disclosure is benefiting you. So paid by, and essentially what it does is it would require a politician to disclose when they take a vote, like a major vote. It would require them to disclose how much money they took from a competing industry. So like you see like a Pete Buttigieg who's sort of done this flip-flop where he supported Medicare for All and now it's like this, Medicare for All who won it, public option, whatever, he's spinning. But he has, you know, taken a lot of money from, you know, insurance medical industry. So he would have to disclose that. And I think it's important for, you know, for Americans, for constituents to see that and understand that because that context is just, it's paramount to understanding if you represent or represent to represent the people. Yeah, absolutely. And I love that there are so many people running for Congress who are already proposing legislation. Like that really shows you that people who are running are hungry. And this is like this new class of people who lots of which will hopefully get elected in 2020. It's so, like it makes me optimistic. Like I always joke about how cynical I am and how, you know, my heart has shrunken and it's growing a little bit. You know, it does give me hope to see so many people running with fresh ideas who actually care about policy and they're not going to get in and become complacent and just worry about, you know, getting re-elected. Because if you have that short-sighted way of thinking, then you're not going to represent the people. You're just going to think about what you can do that's politically expedient that will lead to you getting re-elected and then you just become, like, the rest of the corporate Democrats and do nothing. So it's so nice to see people like you come to the table with fresh ideas. So at this point, I know everyone who's watching is going to be on board with you. So tell us what we can do to help you and how we can get involved and how we can support your campaign. Thank you. Thank you for mentioning that and, you know, our campaign is big enough for everybody, but as I said, we are running a grassroots campaign. So donations are so, so important. Even small donations are very important because it's really what's sustaining us. So if you can donate, you can go to duregoforcongress.com. Also follow us on Twitter at duregomelony. We're a little sassy on Twitter. So if you like to sass, come on in. And we're duregoforcongress on Facebook and Instagram as well, so follow along. But also important is to share out the information with your friends. If you like an idea, if you like a policy that I'm talking about or that I, you know, a new policy because we'll be rolling out some new ones as well, please share them. Please tell your friends. I think for, and I know, I know your audience is super engaged and it's so important, but a lot of people are coming to politics for the first time, really, right? And so sending out a message, whether it's a text message or an email to your friends and saying, hey, this is a great candidate. Why don't you consider donating? I know there are a lot of people that think, oh well, I don't have money to donate. I don't have $100. I don't have $200. I don't have $500,000, whatever they think in their head. But you know what? $5 donation, $10 donation, $20 donation. They all, they all add up. You know, and if we think about it, if we got everyone to just donate $5, we would all be running very successful campaigns. So every little bit truly does help and it's so meaningful for grassroots campaigns. Yeah, and think about this. Like in the event we get, let's say, 5,000 people watch this, if all 5,000 people donated $5, think of the difference that would make. Like she would be unstoppable and you're already unstoppable, but I mean, you'd be even more unstoppable. So Melanie, thank you so much for coming on the program. Thank you so much for running for Congress. This is a tremendous, you know, amount of self-sacrifice that I would never be up to doing. So thank you for having the guts to run. Maybe one day. Maybe one day. Maybe one day. I never thought I'd be running for Congress either. I never ever would have guessed in my wildest dreams that this would be my path, but you never know, you know, some things happen in life that ignite you. Yeah. And you know, we're fighting hard and you know, we're really excited and I'm so, so thankful and humbled that you invited me on your show. I really appreciate it. Well, I'm excited to have you on, everyone. It's duregoforcongress.com. Please donate, chip in a buck or two. Anything helps. And most importantly, if you're in that third district of New York, get involved. Volunteer, knock on some doors for Melanie because that makes all the difference in a race when she is going to go up against the political behemoth, who probably has hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. So Melanie, thank you so much for coming. Yeah. Thank you so much, Melanie. Thank you so much.